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Kid Bits - Share The Yiddish
by ryanikoglu
Oy Vey! Kibbitzers and Fools: Tales My Zayda Told Me by Simms Taback is a very fun collection of brief tales, Yiddish sayings, and colorful illustrations. It's a very nice family shared read. Gey gezundt!
Blog Post
Culture Bits - Share The Princess
by ryanikoglu
The PRINCESS And The PEA has been around for generations. Rachel Isadora has illustrated a brand new version of The Princess And The Pea and she tells the story using iconic African patterns and profiles. It is bee-yoo-tee-ful !!
Blog Post
Lookin' for Bird in the Big City by Robert Burleigh
by Tahira
Teenage Miles Davis takes his trumpet to the streets of New York to find Charlie Parker also known as Bird, in this fictional account of what it may have been like to play with, and learn from one of America’s best Jazz musicians.
Blog Post
DVD Bits - BBC Roaring Twenties
by ryanikoglu
House Of Elliott is a BBC series set in the "Roaring Twenties" among fashion design houses in London. If you enjoyed Upstairs Downstairs give this series a try.
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DVD Bits - Hamish Macbeth
by ryanikoglu
From BBC Scotland, Police constable Hamish Macbeth keeps the peace in the small Scottish town of Lochdubh in his own unique way. Robert Carlyle (also in Trainspotting, Full Monty, Angela's Ashes) plays Hamish Macbeth. If you like BBC Ireland's Ballykissangel, you'll like this ... or vice versa.
Blog Post
Kid Bits - Fearful of Fifth Grade
by ryanikoglu
The Liberation Of Gabriel King is a positive-attitude story of coping with childhood fear.
The main story .... Gabriel and Frita will "fly up" to 5th grade in the fall and they both have their own list of fears. The good thing is they are very good friends, and have very supportive parents, to help them prepare. Together they devise a way to build courage over the summer of 1976.
The historical backdrop ... America's Bicentennial, and black-white racial tensions.
This book, was a Michael L. Printz honor winner.
Blog Post
The Quickie by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
by detra
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The Quickie is an excellent book! There are so many twists, turns and surprises that I could hardly wait to turn the page. There weren't any dull moment in this book!
The Quickie is not only one of Patterson’s better books; it is, in my opinion, one of the best thrillers of 2007.
What a fun read!
Blog Post
Temptress Moon
by french_film_grl
Temptress Moon can be summed up with two letters....P.U.
This movie is a supposed "love story", but I couldn't find the "love" in the story.
The leading man Zhongliang, Leslie Cheung, proclaims at the beginning of the movie he can no longer love. The leading woman Ruyi, Gong Li, cannot bear the fact he cannot love her. Consequently they both set out to prove their positions in this "love affair".
Due to the fact this film is full of scenes that float between the past and the present, the storyline develops a disjointed air throughout.
The characters are also hard to connect with. The weak dialogue between the characters, when they do converse, hinders the ability of the film to come together.
This is no Farewell My Concubine even though the director, Kaige Chen, is the same. The official FFG rating of this movie is a 3.
Blog Post
A Father Like That by Charlotte Zolotow
by Tahira
A little boy without a father describes how the perfect father would be: He would banish nightmares, play checkers, and speak in a soft low voice even when he was angry in Charlotte Zolotow’s, A Father Like That.
Blog Post
Kid Bits - the TAJ MAHAL of India
by ryanikoglu
"Echoing the style of the magnificent manuscripts that chronicle Emperor Shah Jahan's rule" ... the reader is transported to the Mughal era in India and the combined history and legend of one of the world's most famous monuments. Experience this with Taj Mahal for elementary school-age readers/listeners.